Battle for Taophus (Story of CT-4967)
by CT-666
Summary: CT-4967, also known as "Bandage" is Clone Trooper in the Grande Army Of The Republic. All he ever wanted his whole life was to fight in the front lines. After being assigned to the 327th Star Corps, he is sent to liberate Taophus from Seperatists occupation. However frontline combat isn't what he expected, and soon realizes the hardship it takes to win a war.
1. Chapter 1

This is the story of CT-4967 of the 372th Star Corp, during the invasion of Toaphus. The invasion took place on 22BBY, shortly after the Battle of Geonosis. Furthermore, CT-4967 was given the nickname "Bandage" by his fellow clones during their time on Kamino after a training accident...

Today was a big day for me. My brothers and I have just completed our training courses, which we have been doing our whole Iives, and now will finally be able go out in the front lines. I never partook in the Battle of Geonosis, but I hear stories that it was a heroic victory for the Republic and the first clones deployed on the front lines. When I hear these stories, it makes me feel envious of those who were able to be there. But today, I knew I will soon be able to bring back heroic stories of my own. I took helmet and stared at it, knowing that it will be what I will be wearing into battle.

Suddenly I hear through the intercom "All qualified clones, please report to the atrium."

I felt a rush flow through my body, I quickly grabbed my DC-15 Blaster Rifle, that I recently deep cleaned for this moment, and bolted right out my dorm. I began speed walking towards the atrium with excitement.

Suddenly, I hear "Bandage, wait up."

I turned around and saw my best friend, Blake. "

You excited?" I asked.

He replied "Yeah, this is our moment. Today we do what we were bred for and fight for the Republic!"

He seemed excited as I was, in fact all the clones around me looked pretty exited. We all had some sort of smile. After years of rigorous training and simulations, we all felt pretty pumped to finally leave Kamino. At the atrium, there was a lot of chatter. Every clone expressing their excitement to one another.

Suddenly a loud booming voice yelled "ATTENTION!"

We all ran into our line position that we were all trained to do.

"Here comes Instructor Bric." Blake said to me.

Suddenly Bric came in front of us and leaned closely to Blake.

"Is there are problem cadet?" he asked giving Blake a glare.

"No sir." Blake nervously replied.

Bric didn't say anything after that, he just walked down the row and stood firmly, in front of us all as we stood at attention.

He then announced: "Today, from this point on... You are no longer cadets, but soldiers for the Grande Army Of The Republic!"

Those words sent a chill down my spine, and there was some small cheering among the clones. Blake gave me a small nudge with his fist and we exchanged smiles.

"Aright, calm down and stand at attention." Bric ordered.

After we all pulled ourselves together and got back in our formation, Bric took out a holopad and began assigning each training division to a battalion. After I didn't pay attention to the other divisons, only eagerly waiting for mine to be called.

"Beta squad", Bric called out.

"Yes sir." we replied.

"You guys, are now part of the 372th Star Corp, under the command of Jedi master Aayla Secura. You will go to hanger 5 and board a shuttle that'll take you to her fleet."

"Yes sir."

After every division was given their assigned battalion, Bric gave us a final word.

"Today is the day, men. I know we've been through a lot of hard years, and I know I wasn't the nicest guy either. But everything I did was to harden all of you into men. Now, you will go out there and use what you've learned to bring security and order to the Republic! Now, go out there and make a difference".

Finally it was over, my time on Kamino was done. My division went to hanger 5 and the moment I stepped out the door, everything was different. The air around me felt cold, yet fresh. I looked at the dark clouds. This was the first time I've ever been outside the facility. I boarded the shuttle and watched the Kamino facility get smaller as the ship took off into space. On the way to our destination, no one said a word. Everything we were experiencing was new to us, and I guess none of us had the words to describe it. After a long while, I bent down on my seat to look through the cockpit and saw something that amazed me. It was a Venator-class Republic Star Destroyer. I kicked Blake's foot who sat across from me to wake him up.

"What is it? You scared of something?" He jokingly asked.

I just pointed towards the cockpit, and when he looked down his mouth dropped. Soon others in the shuttle looked curiously, and they too had the same reaction. Those Star Destroyers were big. Bigger than the facilities at Kamino, and there wasn't only one, but a whole fleet of them. As the shuttle boarded one of the Destroyers, I stared in amazement as it kept looking better the closer we got to it. When we exited the shuttle, I looked around the hangar. There were other shuttles, as well as Star Fighters and gunships.

A clone then walked in front of us and said "Welcome fresh bloods, to your new home. Your living quarters will be down the hall to the left. You guys can take any unoccupied rooms and there will 4 in room. What room you take and who your roommates will be is up to you. Also, as long as you're here, you will call me Commander Blye. Am I clear?"

"Yes sir". We all replied.

We all walked to the quarter area, where rows of rooms stood next to each other. Some of them had there door open, others closed. We all assumed that those with open doors were the ones that were unoccupied. Blake ran into an empty room and I followed. The rooms were quite small, consisting of 2 bunk beds a on each side of the room, a bathroom and not much else.

"Well, I guess this is home sweet home" Blake said as he laid down on one of the beds.

I decided to take the bed on top of his and set my backpack and weapon down. The beds weren't too different from the ones on Kamino, consisting of a hard mattress and a pillow. Then two more clones came, they were from a different division, and took the bunk bed next to ours.

"I guess this means we're roomates" one of them said.

"Who the hell are you?" I asked.

One of them got up and said "I'm Dagger, and this is Score."

Blake got up and blurted out, "Well this is Bandage, and I'm Blake."

"Bandage huh? Aren't you the one that got busted pretty badly during that one drilling session?" Score asked.

"Well aren't you the guy who consistently had low scores on your written droid and medical tests?" Blake remarked.

I smirked a bit and saw Dagger struggling to hold in a laughter.

After a few minutes, Blake asked "So... what do we do now?"

Dagger replied "Not sure, all Blye ever told us was to go into our rooms."

"Well let's go take a look around the ship, better than staying here and being bored all day." Blake suggested.

"You, sure we're allowed to just roam the ship?" I asked.

"Well no one never told us we couldn't." Score pointed out and began to walk out the room.

The rest of us followed him. Suddenly a group of clones walked around the corner and noticed us.

"Hey, looks like we got ourselves a group of newbies" one of them jokingly said.

"Are you our tour guide?" Blake replied in a tough manner.

The clones gave a chuckle and decided to show us around. We walked around the ship and got to see the cafeteria, the Jedi headroom, the armory, training room,the bathrooms located all over the ship and other places I can't remember. After the tour, our tour guides went into the cafeteria and we decided to also get some grub to eat. The food here was a lot different here than the ones on Kamino, because the food here was actual food, not tasteless nutrient bars.

"Well at least we finally get some real food." Blake noted.

The food wasn't bad, this was the first time I've actually tasted anything, so everything was good. After our meal we all went back to our room and just rested for the day, since there wasn't much else to do. However, the next day, I would do things that'll change my life forever.

"Rise and shine!" Blake yelled kicking my bunk from under.

I got up pretty tired, due to not being able to sleep most of the night.

"Get your gear, command wants us at the deck in 30 min." Dagger said.

I quickly went to a bathroom to brush my teeth and freshen up. I put on my Phase 1 armor, but decided to leave everything else back in my room. At the deck we all stood at attention. Jedi master Aayla Secura come out and greeted us. This was the first time I've ever seen a Twi'lek. Only species I've ever known were the human Jango Fett clones, the Kaminions, and whatever species our bounty hunter trainers were.

"Today is a big day for us. In 2 hours, the 327th be landing on the planet Taophus to take it back from Seperatis occupation." General Secura said.

"What's so special about the planet?" Someone from the group of clones asked.

Commander Blye came in and replied "Taophus is a key Republic resource planet, home to an abundant amounts of metal used to make warships and armor. If we lose the planet, to the Seperatist, they'll enslave the native population and take the metals for themselves".

I didn't really care what the reason was, I just wanted to finally fight some Seperatis "clankers" and prove myself through combat. My blood boiled with excitement and I felt my face turn hot.

"I want all of you to prepare yourselves for the invasion, in less than 2 hours, we will board some LAAT Gunships and insert into the planet, from there we need to secure a landing zone for the rest of the invasion force. Am I clear?" Commander Blye said.

"Sir yes sir!" we replied.

General Secura then dismissed us. We went back to our quarters to prepare our equipment. I began to clean my rifle to make sure it will function on the battlefield.

Suddenly Blake said "General Secura is pretty hot ain't she?"

I didn't really know how to reply since the question came outta nowhere.

"Oh, shut up" I replied.

Everyone else in the room gave a chuckle. To be honest, General Secura did seem a bit attractive, but I was more interested into shooting some clankers. Then Score suggested we all go to the cafeteria to eat.

"Can't fight on an empty stomach." He said.

As we ate, my hands were shaking, I could barely hold the fork. The moment I've been waiting for was only moments away. I ate a little, but my stomach soon felt sick. While Blake, being him, had a full course meal. As the minutes went by, my excitement began to turn into fear. The closer we got, the more I began to realize that this could be my last life, and that I and everyone around may not return from the battlefield. Soon the minutes that went by turned into dread. Finally, the moment came.

Through the intercom a voice came said "All units, please begin to proceed to the hanger for boarding."

"This is it lads." Blake said.

But I could see the fear behind his smile. I grabbed by rifle and my backpack and made my way towards the hangar. The walk was silent, I guess we all just felt the fear and anticipation. At the hanger, LAAT gunships stood in rows, waiting to be boarded. Clones that worked in the maintenance crew directed us towards a ship. The ships had no seats except for the pilot and co pilot seat, so we held onto handles connected to metal bars that ran across the ship's ceiling.

"Well, this is it." I said under my breathe.

I then felt someone grab my shoulders, it was Blake.

He must've heard me cause he said "Don't worry, we trained our whole lives for this. Let's see who can kill the most clankers."

This gave me a small sense of relief but it was minimal.

"Yeah." I managed to say.

The Star Destroy first flew into the planet to get the LAATs onto the planet's atmosphere. Then the LAATs' side doors closed, and began to take off and leave the Star Destroyer.

For a few minutes, the flight was smooth, then booming sounds began to play outside and the ship shook violently.

"We're being hit by heavy AA fire!" the pilot yelled.

At this point I panicked. I held on as tight as I could as the ships maneuver through the skies. Then the side doors opened and I could see the small explosion of the AA guns all around us. Suddenly the LAAT that was flying next to us, bursted into flames as it got hit.

"Come on, come out, come on!" I said under my breath hoping to at least be able to land on the surface.

Suddenly, the an explosion hit the top left corner of the plane, bursting a small hole on top.

"We're hit!" the pilot yelled.

I held on as tight as I could. The wind from the hole tried to vacuum us off the ship and I could feel my backpack trying to pull me back. Suddenly the ship began to spin circles as it fell forward.

"This is it, this is the end" I thought to myself.

Then as we were closing into the surface, the pilot ordered "GO, GO, GO! JUMP OFF THE SHIP!"

Without thinking, I instantly ran to the door and gave a leap off the ship. I hit the surface hard and tumbled on the ground. I lost sense of what was right side up and then everything turned black.

"GET UP! WE HAVE TO HOLD THEM BACK!" Blake yelled, grabbing my backpack to pull me up.

My vision was blurry, my hearing muffled and I was confused of what was going on. After a short while, I regain my vision and heard blaster and mortar fire booming everywhere, after a few seconds I was able to get a grip on what was going on.

"Come let's go!" Blake yelled.

I quickly grabbed my rifle and ran in the wreckage of the ship to get some cover. All around me I heard blaster fire, as red blaster bolts zoomed past my head. I quickly moved out of some cover to return fire to the droids. As I fired, I saw rows upon rows of B1 Battle Droids and B2 Super Battle Droids marching in closer to us while shooting. I kept firing, trying to down as many droids as possible. But eveytime a droid fell, another took its place in a never ending line. Blaster bolts zipped past my head, making whizzing sounds as they went by. I kept shooting at the incoming droids, one after another fell but they just kept coming. Then a blaster bolt zipped into the face of the clone to my left.

"Man down!" I yelled as I bent down to see the trooper's injuries.

The trooper has shot dead in his helmet. I looked through the shattered visor of the helmet and saw something I wish I never did. A black hole burned through his head, splatters of blood and bits of his flesh laid everywhere inside. It was revolting and I wanted to puke. Blake then kicked my back and told me to get back into the fight. I poked out of my cover to return fire on the advancing droids but the image was still fresh in my mind, which filled me with more fear. More and more gunships began landing behind us and more clone troopers came out to reinforce us. General Secura then came out in front of us and ignited her lightsaber.

"We have to secure the landing zone for armored support to arrive!" She ordered.

She deflected incoming laser fire with her lightsaber, as we shot down any droid we could. This was the first time I've ever seen a Jedi in combat, and this showed me how powerful they were. Some LAAT gunships came down and did a strafing run on the droid battalion, dropping bombs and heavy cannon fire.

After the gunships were done, General Secura yelled "Follow me!" and ran towards the droids with her lightsaber drawn.

"Get to it men!" Commander Blye ordered.

We all ran towards the smoke and dust and charged at the remaining droids. The droids that did survive the airstrike however, continued to fire. As we ran, many clones were shot dead in their tracks, but we kept running. Adrenaline rushed towards my leg, I ran faster than I've ever been and I didn't feel any pain from all the running. Finally, we were close to the droids. General Secura began slicing every droid in her way, they were like butter to her lightsaber. I pointed the barrel of my rifle point blank into the face of a droid and blew it's whole head off. I began to shoot at any nearby droids as we advanced. We kept advancing through the droid line, following behind General Secura.

"Come get some you damn clankers!" Blake yelled.

Suddenly the droid lines in the back began to turn around and retreat.

"We have them on full retreat!" Commander Blye pointed out.

We began fired at the backs of the retreating droids and continue to pursue them.

"We've secured the landing zone, let them retreat", General Secura ordered.

We stopped running, but continued to shoot any droids we had a clear sight on. Finally, it was over, I took a huge breathe in relief that I had just survive my first battle.

"We did it buddy. Holy crap, I can't believe we did it." Blake said with a breathe of relief.

But the happiness of victory didn't last. I turned around and saw those who didn't survive. Piles of droid parts and dead clone troopers laid on top of one another. Not only that, but some wounded clones laid on the ground groaning in pain and misery. I saw a lying clone holding his side as blood poured out, his gut blasted from gunfire. Another had his left arm blown clean off from a mortar shell. I however was lucky to go mostly unscathed, except for a few cuts on my arms and legs from shrapnel. In fact through the heat of battle, I didn't feel or notice them until I was checked by a medic trooper.

"General Kenobi, we've secured the landing ground." General Secura said through her holo transmitter.

"Very good, we'll now send the rest of your invasion force and armored support." General Kenobi replied.

Soon more gunships came down carrying AT-TE walker tanks, supply crates, and more clone troopers. As the ships began to unload, I sat down on the dirt ground and removed my helmet. I was sweating and shaking, flashbacks of the battle came back and hit me.

"Are you alright trooper?" General Secura asked.

I looked up and replied "Yes sir".

"You must be the one they call Bandage. Interesting name.

My eyes widen as this statement caught be by surprise. All of us clones share the same face since we were all cloned from a single person named Jango Fett.

"Yes sir. But, how can you tell?"

She smiled and said "You may all look the same, but through the Force, you all are different".

She then walked away to manage the unloading of supplies.

I didn't know what this "force" was, but I did find a new sense of respect for the Jedi.

"That was some hell we just been through." Blake said as he sat next to me.

"Yeah, no simulation could prepare us for this as we thought." I replied.

"Funny thing is, this is what we were made for." Blake jokingly said.

We both gave a small laugh, only to try to get a sense of humor to drown our fear. All I knew was that I would have to do this again and again until we liberate the whole planet or until death takes me.


	2. Chapter 2

After the landing zone was secured we were ordered to refill our ammo and prepare to move on. A lot of us also took the time to eat and drink some rations. I also took the time to scrub my helmet, due to my visor being clogged with dirt and and debris from the battle.

"Commander Blye, prepeare the men to move." General Secura ordered.

"Alright men, we were given orders to move north down to the mining town of Ashton where Seperatist have already began mining. We take the town, we'll secure a foothold in the northern hemisphere of the planet."

"Yes sir." We replied

We began to march down north. Behind us we had 6 AT-TE walker tanks and a 6 HAVw A6 Juggernaut tank that carried our extra supplied. For the first few hours of the march no one said a word.

After a while I heard "Bandage, what's up?"

I turned around to see it was Dagger.

"We're the hell were you? I haven't seen you ever since we landed on this dump." I asked.

"Ship crashed, I stayed passed out inside the wreckage for most of the battle. Had to get fixed up by a medic before making it all the way here."

'Where's Score?" I asked, noticing he wasn't around.

"...He didn't make it." Dagger replied in a soft grimming voice.

I didn't say anything after that. I was barely knew Score, but I still felt the sorrow of losing someone I knew for a bit. Memories of the star After 6 hours of just marching forward, my legs began to feel sore, my heels were burning, and my backpack weighed on me. My rifle felt extra heavy in my arms and I began to envy those who were issued the smaller DC-15A blaster. Soon I began panting trying to keep up with the group.

"You tired too?" Blake asked.

"Yeah." I replied through my panting breathe.

The others clones seemed to also be exhausted. Many of them began walking in sluggish movements and could barely keep their backs straight.

Blake ran up to General Secura and said "Sir, we should find a place to set up camp for the night, the men are exhausted."

General Secura looked up. The sun was about to set and the clouds got darker.

"Alright, we'll set up here and camp for the night." She replied.

We all fell to the ground on our butts. Many of us removed our helmets and took a few minutes to catch our breathe. I grabbed my cantine and took a huge chug of water. I looked up and notice General Secura was barely breaking a sweat. Either the Jedi just have high stanima, or it's this "force" that helps them. I then took out my portable tent and set it up. Soon a few campfires were made with sticks laying around and matches that were in our rations. I cooked up one of my MRE packs which contained a can of artificial, nutrient rich beans and some salted hard crackers. General Secura and Commander Blye examined a Holo Map, planning our next course of action while other clones began dazing into the instance. Either they were scanning for a possible droid ambush in the dark, or just remembering their first battle. I however was exhausted, head felt like it had been processing so many things at once, and my body sore from combat and marching. I took off my armor in the tent and set up my sleeping bag, which was as hard as the beds on Kamino, but I was too tired to care.

"Rise and shine trooper!" Commander Blye ordered through my tent the next morning.

I got up and felt dreadful, realizing I was still on this planet. The sun was just beginning to rise, but General Secura wanted to get moving as quickly as possible. I put on my armor and grabbed gear, and ate a tasteless nutrient bar for breakfast. The tanks were refilled and we began moving.

"Got any good sleep?" Blake asked.

"I guess so." I replied.

After a few hours the cloud turned dark grey, then small drips of watered poured down, the amount of water kept increasing, and before long it was raining heavily.

"We'll this is perfect." I sarcastically thought to myself.

The dirt we were walking on quickly became mud. Soon every step became a hassle. We were all ankle deep into the mud lifting our legs as high as possible to take a step only to see our feet sink with each step.

"We're close, keep pushing forward." General Secura said.

"Finally." I thought to myself.

Suddenly, one of our AT-TE stopped moving.

"The from right leg is trapped inside the mud." The tank crew said.

"Come on baby girl, don't let up now." Dagger jokingly said.

We then grabbed small shovels from the Juggarnaut tank and began digging around the feet of the AT-TE, trying to free it from the mud.

"Stupid useless piece of trash." Blake mumbled under his breathe.

"Keep going boys, the lady is almost free." Dagger announced.

"Quiet! You hear that?" Command Blye asked.

We all stopped moving. I began trying to listen as hard as possible. I did hear a fient sound, it was a "wirving" sound, like something from an fighter jet. I looked up and around trying to see where the noise came from.

"Vulture droids, 12'oclock!" A clone yelled, pointing at the sky.

"Airstrike! Get down!" General Secura ordered.

We all fell on our bellies putting our heads to the ground. Loud "booms" from the explosion filled the field, mud and debris flew everywhere and fell down like rain. The bombs were dropped mainly behind us targeting our armored support.

"We're being ambushed!" Commander Blye yelled, pointing at the droids across the field.

We all got up and returned fire to the droids across the field. I got up and tried to wipe the mud off my visor with my hands. I quickly grabbed by rifle, which was half submerged in the mud and tried to return fire. After a few shots, by rifle stopped shooting. It began jamming after taking in so much mud. I panicked, and tried everything I could to get my rifles functioning. I replaced the energy box with a fresh new one and pulled the slide back to get a blaster bolt to chamber. But nothing worked, my rifle refused to shoot.

"RPG!" A clone yelled.

A rocket flew passed us and struck one of our AT-TEs and disabled it. I decided to go run to the destroyed tank to help any wounded. The top gunner leaning on his seat and unresponsive. I ran up and pulled him down and dragged him behind the tank.

"Man down, we need a medic!"

A medic came to inspect the wound. He suffered a shrapnel to his chest that barely pierced his armor. The medic applied some morphine and proceeded to remove the shrapnel. We were still under heavy fire, so I quickly took the medic's blaster and use it to keep the droids back.

"We have to hold the line!" General Secura ordered.

Blaster fire flew everywhere and clones began dropping left and right. To make matters worse we had little cover due to being in the open field. But we all stood our ground. The tanks however, did help a lot as they kept the droid line from advancing any further. Then an explosion hit our right line knocking out 4 clones instantly.

"Separatist tank ahead!" Blake called out.

I took aim at the tank and fired, but it's armor was too strong for our blasters to do anything.

"I got this one!" Dagger said, as he grabbed the rocket launcher strapped to his back.

He took aim and shot the rocket directly at the tank. The tank got hit but it was still functioning. The rest of our AT-TE tanks began focusing on the Sepratists tank and before long they destroyed it. The firefight lasted for a few more minutes until we've blasted every last droid."

"Hold your fire! We've won!" Commander Blye called out.

I took a sigh of relief, as the battle finally finished. I looked down at the medic and wounded trooper next to me.

"How is he?" I asked

"He's fine for now, but without proper medical attention, he might not make it."

"Just see what you can do."

I left the blaster next to the medic and made my way to Blake.

"Your alright?" I asked.

"Yeah, those clanker haven't gotten to me yet."

I saw Dagger next to him sitting on the ground holding his upper arm.

"Those clankers got me pretty good." He said as he held the bleeding from the wound.

Another medic came to check on him.

"What's our casualty report?" General Secura asked Blye.

"We lost half of our supply tank, 2 AT-TE, and 1,360 more clones. With the landing casualties, this means we've lost 4,989 out of the 10,000 we came with."

We contiued to move down the field and eventually caught up to where the droid line was. Droid pieces lied everywhere, making this place look like a scrapyard.

"I thought there would be more droids here. I mean, you'd think they would send a lot more to ambush us considering how many of use there were." Blake said.

"Yeah, that's pretty weird."

"Maybe the droids were underestimating us?" Dagger asked.

"Unlikely, droids always deploy in massive numbers, maybe they weren't trying to eliminate us in the first place." Blake responded.

Later, we went up and over a hill and saw the town we were looking for. I took out my binoculars and to scout the town. Most of the buildings were on fire and there were a lot of dead civilians in the streets. But weirdly, there were no clankers in sight.

"Sir, I can't see a single droid from here." I told General Secura.

"We're going to check it out." She responded.

We slowly entered the town. It was completely destroyed, buildings either had a huge holes in them, or were burning, others were nothing but a pile of rubble. General Secura checked one of the civilians on the street.

"Dead, shot in the back." she said.

I looked around for any droids but none can be seen. Then I heard something move out of the building.

I pointed my rifle at it and yelled "Freeze!"

It was a Tao. They looked a lot like humans, only were a bit shorter and had 2 curled horns like rams and had webbed feet.

"Who are you? And what do you want from us? He asked.

"We're from the Republic and we've come to liberate you." General Secura responded.

Soon more Taos came out of the destroyed buildings, creating a crowd around us. Through the crowds cheering can be heard.

"The Republic is here at last!"

"Thank the gods, they're here!"

"We're saved!"

An older looking Toa came up to General Secura and said:

"Thank you master Jedi for saving us. My name is Palp and I'm the mayor of this town."

"What happened here?" she asked.

"After months of being oppressed and forced to mine metals by the droid army, they began leaving the town a while ago. But they shot anyone out in the open, blew up the mines, as well as destroyed buildings with explosives and flamethrowers."

"Scorched planet tactics..." General Secura said softly.

Palp then showed us to the mines which have been blocked with piles of boulder, evidentially showing it had been destroyed. Next to it was a shipping container. He pointed at the container but didn't say a word. Only looking away, as if something inside was scaring him.

"You two, get that container opened." General Secura ordered, pointing at Blake and I.

We held each of the metal doors and pulled it with all our might, slowly getting the container opened. A putrid smell of rotting flesh bursted out of those containers. When I looked in, I couldn't believe my eyes. Piles of dead body stacked all the way to the top laid. Some looked freaky as if they were in there for days. Others looked like they've been in there for months, since they were so badly decomposed you could see part of their bones and bits of flesh and organs tingling from the bones. This is way worse than anything I've seen in the battlefield. Every Tao in the crowd began crying, even Palp.

"They... They forced us all to work in the mines, giving us little food and water. We worked early morning to late evening under the constant watch of the droids. When any of us showed any sign of taking a break, the droids shot them dead. Many were worked to death. Some of us couldn't take it anymore and purposely let the droids shoot us. Most of the town's poplulation lay in that container, including my wife and two sons."

"I'm, sorry. But you're safe now." General Secura replied.

"Burn this container." She ordered.

Two troopers grabbed some gasoline and a flamethrower from the last supply tank and proceeded to douse the container and burn it. As I watched the container and the bodies in it burn, I felt something burning inside me. It was anger. My blood boiled with anger against the Separatist. I was angry of what the Separatist animals have done. All of a sudden I wasn't scared to fight anymore, I wanted to fight. I wanted to go out and kill every last battledroid and gun down every Separatist leader like the animals they are.

"Come on brother, we still gotta check every inch of the town." Blake said.

I followed him and the other clones, hoping to find and kill any hiding droids.

"General Kenobi, the droids have retreated from the town, before we got here but destroyed everything. These people need food and medical desperately. I also need reinforments as 2 of my supply tanks were destroyed." General Secura said through here Holo transmitter.

"Negative. The Seperatist fleet have returned to the planet's orbit and we need to destroy it first before we can send any ships back to the surface. You'll need to hold out until we can send any reinforcements or humanitarian support."

After we searched everywhere, as expected we found nothing. A little Tao girl came up to me with her arms out speaking in her native language. Looks like she hasn't learned how to speak Galatic Basics yet, but I was able to make out what she was saying. She was very thin with her ribs and arm bones showing through her due to being starved like the others. I just knew she was begging for food. I took out 2 nutrient bars from my backpack and handed it to her. She quickly opened one and gobbled it up in a few seconds. Then she went to back to another younger Tao that appears to be her younger sibling and gave it the second bar.

"Poor little things." I thought to myself.

"Listen up! The Seperatist fleet has returned to the planet and we need to hold up here until help can arrive. I want a trench line dug in the back entrance of the town and all remains tanks in stantionary positions. We will use the mayor's mansion as a headquarters and I want a sniper and lookout nest on top." General Secura ordered.

"What!? We should be out there chasing these monsters!" I yelled, walking up to her.

"Stand down trooper!" Commander Blye ordered.

"No! You've seen what these Seperatist scum have done! We can't be hiding behind our defenses like cowards when others can be suffering like this!"

Then suddenly Commander Blye punched my in the helmet and knocked me to the ground. He pointed his blaster at me.

"I said stand down! Do your duty and follow orders!"

"Yes sir..." I replied knowing I couldn't do anything.

Soon I began digging the trench with a lot of other clones in the outskirts of the town. The dirt was still a little muddy from the previous rain so digging was pretty easy. Before nightfall, we've dug a whole trench 4 feet deep and 1/2 a mile long. We positioned are our remaining tanks behind the trenches. We then placed shield generators around our tanks. We had enough for all but one. In front of the trench we took barbed wire and sand bags that were left behind by the droids to fortify our defenses. Those that were issued Z-6 Rotary Cannons put the weapon on a tripod and placed them over the trench. Commander Blye issued us patrolling shifts and luck was against me that I got a late night shift. After everything was in place I took out my cleaning kit and cleaned out my rifle. I cleaned it twice and made sure it would function and hopefully not jam again. Then I went to get whatever sleep I could. Before long a clone walked into my tent and woke me up.

"It's your turn now." He said.

I didn't know how much sleep I got, but it wasn't much. I grabbed my helmet and rifle and proceeded to the trench. Luckily for me though, Blake had the same shift as I, so at least I had someone to keep me company.

"You really lashed out at the General earlier." Blake said.

"Yeah... I was just a little hot headed."

"What's even funnier is you disobeyed Commander Blye too. I mean, during our time at Kamino, you were always the model soldier. Always trying to do your job right, and following each and every order word to word."

"I never did like him much."

We both gave a small laugh.

"You think the droids are coming back?" He asked.

"Yeah, those clankers don't give up territory without a fight."

"But, I can't wait for them to return." I thought to myself.


	3. Chapter 3

The night was quiet. But droids weren't our only problem. Our supplies were low, General Secura did her best to distribute whatever ever we had left among the troops and the desperate people. All clones were put on a 1 meal a day order to save supplies. Inside the town we set up medical tents to care for our wounded and civilians. Our medical supplies were low, and we didn't have enough bandages to heal every wound. Many of us had to shred clothes to use as makeshift bandages. Those with wounds bigger than a cut didn't have many options. In most cases, they were just given a dosage of morphine. We didn't even have enough antibiotics to heal the sick. And few clones and I went to the nearby hospital to salvage what we could, but the clankers made sure they destroyed it. Bottles that use to contain meds were burned to a crisp, beds fill with ashes, and shelves empty and knocked out. I looked around and managed to spot a box under a pile of rubble and ashes. I pulled it out and broke the lock with the butt-stock of my rifle. Inside was a small bottle of antibiotic pills, gloves, and bandages. It wasn't enough for our situation, but it was better than nothing. Unfortunately, that was the only thing we were able to salvage from the hospital.

"Good work." General Secura told me.

Later that day we were given our daily rations. I didn't eat mine. These people have been starving for months,and I couldn't bare to let them starve any longer. I saw the kids from the other day peeking through the broken window of their destroyed house. I handed them my MRE pack and continued to patrol the streets. Suddenly blasterfire and explosions could be heard from the distances.

"Let's move men!" Commander Blye called out.

We all ran to the trenches and began to engage the droids. The droids hid behind the forests across the field. Their snipers began picking off clones inside the trenches. I kept firing, but could barely see any droids through the thick tree line. Our tanks blasted the forest sending trees falling and smoke rising. Suddenly rockets began hitting out left tank.

"Snipers take out the RPGs!" Commander Blye ordered.

But through the trees, smoke, and dirt, it was hard to see anything. The machine gunner next to me suddenly got picked off by a sniper. I went down to check of him. He was already dead with a burning hole in his chest where he was shot. I then went up to take over the machine gun sprayed blaster bolts down in short bursts. Another RPG came out fro the forest and hit the same tank. I began to spray down the general direction of the RPG. But it was no use, a 3rd RPG was shot and destroyed our left tank. Then the gunfire from the forest stopped.

"They've retreated." Commander Blye announced.

"It appears that they're now targeting our tanks." Blake said.

"Without our tanks, they'll overrun us with no problem." I replied.

After that we took the dead to a nearby graveyard and laid their bodies in rows and columns. We took their ammunition and placed a blanket over them. Before long, nightfall came. I stood in the trench patrolling the area and suddenly a clone approached.

"You care too much about the civilians." he said.

"What do you mean?" I replied.

"I've seen how you've reacted when you saw them. How you gave them your rations."

"What's wrong with that?"

"Civies, are just a casualty of war. Remember your priorities and duty, or else you'll get us or yourself kill."

Before I could reply, a blaster bolt struck past me and hit him in the helmet.

"Sniper!" I yelled ducking for cover.

Another shot went over my head and struck a clone sniper.

I went out of cover and spotted the snipers which were a pair of BX Commando Droids, through the night vision module on my helmet. I took my rifle and began to fire down range at them. Blake and other clones came and fired at them too. I managed to hit one of them. It flinched for a moment but it didn't appear to take any real damage. It took its rifle and the two droids retreated back into the forest. The rest of the night was quiet, although all of us stayed vigilant and the no one said a word. The next morning I went back to the town. Everything seemed normal, but our situation was still dire. General Secura kept requesting aid from the Republic but the Separatists blockade still held strong. Later in the day, two clones came back carrying a dead clone.

"Sniper..." They said.

"Now the clankers are picking us off one by one." Dagger said.

As the days went by, ambushes became a constant nuisance. Some of them were just snipers trying to pick off any clone they could, others involved a small group of droids attempting to destroy our tanks. But the our tank fortification held really well. Or so I thought... But before we knew it, ammunition became a problem. We struggled to keep the machine guns fed, our tanks began to have a limited number of shells, and we began to run out of fuel for the tank's shield generators. On day 7, we were given news that the Republic fleet has made a dent in the Separatists blockade and will soon break through. This was good news, but the bad news was the clankers have stepped up their ambushes. In a single day we had as many as 3 ambushes. Our death count rose, soon our dropped to little over two thousand clones.

"These clankers are ripping us apart piece by piece." Blake said.

"Good thing we have those tanks. It'll keep them back." I said.

Soon, I had a bad feeling in my get. I just knew something is wrong, I didn't know what it was, but I felt it.

"I'm gonna go check our defenses." I said.

"What for?"

"Just a bad feeling."

"I'm sure it's just superstition."

I went anyway just to be sure. Blake decided to follow me.

We walked up to behind the trench and gave a it a look. Nothing seemed wrong.

"See? What I tell ya? I think all these sleepless nights is messing with your head." Blake said

I still kept looking, by gut was just telling me something was wrong. Then movement caught my eye. It was Toa behind our tanks.

"You there. What are you doing here?" I said to him.

Suddenly he ran.

"Stop!" Blake yelled.

We chased him as he tried to run back into the town. It didn't take long until Blake caught up an tackled him. The Toa fought back.

"Why are you running?" Blake said trying to subdue him.

He managed to free one arm that had a button on it and pressed it.

The tanks exploded, and bits and pieces of metal flew everywhere. Blake then managed to get handcuffs on the Toa.

"What have you done!?" I yelled at him.

General Secura and other clones came.

"What's going on?" Blye asked.

"This rotten traitor destroyed all of our armor." Blake replied.

"Why would you do this?" General Secura asked.

"He... he said he was gonna kill my wife and my daughter in the nearby town."

"Who?"

"The droid commander."

When we got back to the town, Palp showed us where he lived. We searched his room. At first we found nothing. Dagger than flipped up the carpet and found a loose piece of wood on the floor.

"Typical hiding spot. Can't believe we didn't check it before." He said.

We opened the floor and found a holo transmitter. I brought it out and showed it to General Secura. Suddenly the holo transmitter lit up and a Tactical Droid appeared.

"It appears our little mole did his job." It said.

"I did what you asked! Now, let my family go!" The Toa traitor yelled.

Suddenly, a woman holding a child appeared in the transmitter screaming.

"You'll be with them soon." The Tatical Droid said.

It then pulled out a blaster and shot the woman and the child.

"NOOO! You promised!" The Toa yelled as he fell to the ground crying.

The droid then turned to General Secura.

"Prepare to be destroyed." It said. Then the transmission cut off.

We all ran to the trenches with all of our equipment. We grabbed whatever rocket launchers we had to fight off any tanks.

"We have to hold off to the best of our ability. If we lose this town, the whole invasion will be in jeopardy." General Secura ordered us all.

From the distance, we heard the clanking march of droids and the roaring engines of their tanks.

"Steady men, steady." Commander Blye said.

Soon the droids came into sight.

"Open fire!" Commander Blye ordered.

The field quickly became filled with gunfire. This time there were more droids than I've ever seen. From here it looked the whole droid army was here. I kept firing, as storms of blaster bolts flew passed me.

"Come on Bandage, we can beat these guys." Blake said.

Separatists tanks began to appear behind the droid line. Those with rocket launchers began to fire at the tanks. The first few initial tanks were destroyed, more and more kept coming. They began firing down on us. Explosions took out groups of clones, kicking up dirt and rocks, and obscuring our vision. I kept firing at any droid I could see through the dust. The droids kept falling but more took their place. Tank shells blew up left and right and clones screamed in pain as they were shot. The clone next to with a rocket launcher fell after we was hot.

"The tanks are advancing!" Commander Blye yelled.

I went down and took the rocket launcher. I took aim at a nearby tank and shot it. The tank got disabled but another one was coming in from of us.

"Check him for rockets!" Blake said.

I went down and rolled the dead clone over to his back. I checked in his backpack and found another rocket. Just then a tank shell exploded behind me sending Blake falling backs. As he laid on the ground he looked at me.

"Hurry..." He said.

I quickly loaded the rocket and took aim at the tank. I shot it and the rocket at the tank and disabled it.

Blake managed to get up, but his left arm was wounded. He fired his blaster with one arm at the advancing droids. More and more Separatists tanks kept coming, but I had no more rocket ammo. I tossed the launcher and began to shoot at the droids. They kept getting closer and closer. I took out a thermal detonator from my belt and threw at the droids. It exploded knocking out whole groups of droids. I threw another and another until I ran out. General Secura deflected blaster bolts with her lightsaber and noticed more tanks incoming.

"There are still more advancing tanks." She said.

"We're out of rockets." Commander Blye replied.

The droids just kept getting closer, no matter how many of them we killed.

"The machine gun is dry!" A clone said.

General Secura then tried to contact the Republic fleet.

"Obi-Wan, we're being overrun, we need backup now!"

"We're almost through, you need to hold out a little longer."

"Destroyers!" Blake yelled.

A group of Droidekas rolled in front of the advancing droids. They had energy shields that protected them from blaster bolts and began to mow down clones.

"We need to retreat!" General Secura yelled.

"Throw any smoke grenades you got." Commander Blye yelled.

Blake an a few other clones threw smoke grenades and soon, not a single droid was visible. We all tried to jump out and retreat, but then BX Commando Droids jumped through the smoke and began to grab clones or shoot them at point blank. General Secura sliced up a few incoming Commando Droids. A commando droid then knocked me down with a punch and point it's blaster at my face. Before it could shoot me, Blake shot him point blank in the face. Another jumped in, but I quickly shot it 3 times in the chest.

"We gotta get out of here!" Blake yelled as he grabbed my hand.

We all ran back into the town where General Secura had our Juggernaut supply tanks stationed. They both released a hellfire of missiles to the Droidekas and Separatists tanks. However, it wasn't long until it was overwhelmed by Separatists tanks and rockets fired from the B2-HA Super Battle Droids. We all ran into nearby buildings to take cover and return fire. General Secura then ran out and began to cut any droids that entered into the town. We all covered her and shot any nearby droids. Suddenly a tank shell then exploded in front of her knocking her back.

"The General is down!" I yelled as I ran to bring her back into cover.

"Provide suppressive fire!" Commander Blye ordered.

I wrapped my arms under her armpits and proceeded to drag her back. She ignited her lightsaber and proceeded to deflected any blaster bolts coming our way. I dragged her into the house and set her down right below the window.

"Medic!" I called out.

A medic than came running to us from the building across from us. But he was shot down in his tracks.

I kept shooting at incoming droids but we were greatly outnumbered and were at our breaking point. Suddenly the tanks stopped moving and the droids also stopped moving. The Tactical Droid appeared out the tank. At that moment we also stopped shooting, wondering what was going on.

"To all Republic Forces. Surrender or be destroyed."

We call came out, knowing we've already lost. I left General Secura in the house and came out. I dropped my rifle and put my hands in the air. We were all rounded in the middle of the street and were surrounded by droids.

"We surrender." Commander Blye said.

"Where's the jedi?" The Tactical Droid asked.

No one said a word.

"I'll ask one last time. Where is the jedi?"

Again none of us said anything.

"Fine, we'll tear apart this town to find her. For now, execute all the clones on my mark."

"Typical clankers..." Dagger said.

"Ready."

"I didn't think we'd go out like this..." Blake said.

"Set"

I closed my eyes. "This is the end..." I thought to myself.

"And... f-."

"Bombers inbound!" A clone yelled.

Y-Wing Bombers came and bombarded the droid's back line. LAAT Gunships came down and clones came out to engage the droids. General Secura then ran out and jumped on the tank and then beheaded the Tactical Droid. I turned around and forcefully grabbed the droid's blaster. I disarmed it and shot at nearby droids. General Secura then fell to the ground as coming out took every last bit of her strength. I wrapped her arm around my shoulders to hold her up and watched as Republic ships flooded the skies. Civilians came out and cheered at the ships and shortly after, the droids were destroyed. A jedi then approached us.

"Glad you came, Skywalker." General Secura said.

"Just saving the day, as always."

A clone with blue markings on his armor then approached him.

"General Skywalker, the town is secured." He said.

"Good job Rex." General Skywalker replied.

I proceeded to carry General Secura to the medical tents. A pair of medic troopers came with a stretcher and we placed her on it.

"Good work out there Bandage." she said.

"Thank you, sir."

Soon, we had enough supplies for everyone. I ate my rations like a wolf, after starving for so long. The sick and wounded were given a lot more medical care and gunships carried any clone who were too wounded to fight, back to Kamino, where they would recover in the medical facilities. There were also gunships that took our dead to Coruscant where they would be cremated. I cleaned my rifle, got extra energy cell, took a nice shower, and scrubbed my armor clean. Blake suffered a few shrapnel to his left arm but the medics were able to fix him up and he was able to keep fighting. Although he had to wear a bandage and was on morphine. We were reinforced with more AT-TE walkers and Juggarnaut tanks, as well as troops from the 501st Legion. Once everything was set, we rested for the night.


End file.
